Lassoing Rodeo Specials and Underbelly Hospitality Food News

Robin Barr Sussman

HERE'S THE LATEST on where to eat in H-town before or after the rodeo, or if you just crave fine Texas eats and drinks that boast a bargain!

Murder Island! Kristen Bird’s Debut Novel Is Set in Galveston and Based on Real Events

Edward Nawotka

EMILY CALLAHAN, AN 18-year-old senior at posh Callahan Preparatory Academy on Galveston Island, goes missing after a Mardi Gras party and is found 10 weeks later floating in the bay. She is alive, but has no memory of what happened. Intrigued? That’s the idea behind Kristen Bird’s debut novel The Night She Went Missing.

Besides Diving and Dining, the Dutch Isles of Aruba and Curaçao Are Attracting Guests with Something New: Vibrant Art

David Paul Rabalais & Jeff Gremillion

THERE'S A MYSTIQUE about the Netherlands-affiliated island states of Aruba and Curaçao, two of the three ABC Islands in the Caribbean just off the coast of Venezuela. (The third is Bonaire.) Gleaming white beaches and clear turquoise waters in the shadows of towering cliffs dotted with centuries-old forts may come to mind, and historic downtowns with tall skinny candy-colored buildings. All that is, of course, a major draw. Increasingly, so is art.

Októ will have a lively bar like the one at Doris Metropolitan, pictured here. (photo by Kirsten Gilliam)

AFTER YEARS OF operating solid, Israeli-influenced concepts — Doris Metropolitan on Shepherd, and Badolina and Hamsa in Rice Village — Sof Hospitality is set to debut its latest concept in Montrose Collective this summer. Surprise, this time it’s Mediterranean cuisine!

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Food

“DO YOU KNOW how a river forms?” is the question that begins Houston author Vaishnavi Patel’s new book, Goddess of the River. The voice belongs to Ganga, goddess of India’s Ganges river, who has been transformed against her will by Lord Shiva from “a tributary of the cosmic ocean” into the physical form of a mere winding river, with no path to the heavens, only the sea. Later, Ganga runs afoul of a powerful sage who transforms her yet again into a human, and as it happens in myths, things get complicated.

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Art + Entertainment